Method and system for providing order status information using an update status flag

ABSTRACT

A method and system for providing account status information using an update status flag to receive status information pertaining to a customer account. It is determined whether the received status information is new relative to further status information stored within a status record pertaining to the account. The status record is updated to include the received status information if the received status information is new. The updated message indicating the received status information is then composed and sent to the customer.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.12/885,243, filed Sep. 17, 2010, which is a continuation of U.S.application Ser. No. 11/042,851, filed Jan. 25, 2005, now issued as U.S.Pat. No. 7,801,767, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.10/371,536, filed Feb. 14, 2003, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,859,787,which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/426,573, filedOct. 25, 1999, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,139,726, which is acontinuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/725,635, filed Oct. 8,1996, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,047,264, which is acontinuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/695,095,filed Aug. 8, 1996, now abandoned.

This application is related to copending patent application Ser. No.10/371,274, entitled “Method and System for Requesting StatusInformation from a Common Carrier,” filed Feb. 14, 2003 and patentapplication Ser. No. 10/371,296, entitled “Method and System forProviding Order Status Information using a Network Address,” filed Feb.14, 2003, each commonly assigned with the present invention.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to electronic commerce and moreparticularly to updating customers as to the status of their orders andorder shipments.

2. Description of the Related Art

In the mail order industry, it is common practice to notify customers bymail when their orders are backlogged or their shipments will be delayedfor some reason. The advent of wide area electronic networks like theInternet has made it possible for customers to query the status of theirorders and shipments by directly accessing the merchants' and shippers'information systems. For example, both Federal Express® (FedEx®) andUnited Parcel Service® (UPS®) have world wide web sites on the Internetwhere customers can track the shipping status of their packages bysimply inputting the package's tracking number to a computer form on aweb page.

There is an advantage however, to notifying customers by mail when theirshipments will be delayed, because the customer is not required to takeany action to receive this notification—that is, the customer does nothave to proactively access the Internet or other network, go to theshipper's world wide web site, and obtain and input a parcel trackingnumber in order to check on the shipping status.

In U.S. Pat. No. 5,428,778 to Brookes (“Brookes”), a keyword basedprofile is used to match information coming into a system with theusers' interests. In Brookes, the user is alerted to the presence of theinformation in the database (perhaps because there is a delivery feeassociated with the information), but the information is not actuallydelivered to the user.

Also in the related art are several Internet-based electronic mailsystems that deliver information to users daily via E-mail based onpersonal profiles. There are, for example, several stock quotationservices that electronically mail a list of a user's personal favoritestock prices each day. Unlike Brookes, such systems do deliver theinformation directly to the user. However, the user is required tosubmit an interest profile to the system in order to receive feedback.

There is a need in the art, therefore, for a system and method forautomatically notifying a party of the status of a delivery withoutrequiring submission of a status request or special profile informationfrom the party.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A method and system for providing order status information using anupdate status flag is described. According to one aspect of theinvention, status information pertaining to an order placed by acustomer with a merchant is received. It is determined whether thereceived status information is new relative to further statusinformation pertaining to the order stored within a status record. Thestatus record is updated to include the received status information ifthe received status information is new. The updated message indicatingthe received status information is then composed and sent to thecustomer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The aforementioned advantages of the invention, as well as additionaladvantages thereof, will be more fully understood as a result of adetailed description of the exemplary embodiment when taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary computer environment for implementingthe system and method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is block diagram of components illustrating an exemplaryembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the status requester and its methodof operation.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the status receiver and its method ofoperation.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the electronic mail messenger and itsmethod or operation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF AN EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENT

The present invention may be implemented as a computer program 248running on a central server host computer shown in FIG. 1, attached to awide area network 275 accessible by many potential customers throughremote terminals 210 using keyboard 240, pointing device 260 and monitor280. An exemplary network for implementing the present invention is theInternet which is accessible by a significant percentage of the worldpopulation, although the network may also be a local area or limitedarea accessible network.

Information about the customers and their respective orders ismaintained in a status database 16 such as the one shown in FIG. 2.Status database 16 may be maintained on server 250 shown in FIG. 1.Individual customer orders may be placed in this database either byorder entry personnel 300 or electronically by order entry systems alsoattached to wide area network 275 of FIG. 1. Status information instatus database 16 maybe updated manually by order entry personnel orelectronically by other means such as status receiver 14 shown in FIG.2.

Periodically via status query 10, status requester 13, sends a statusrequest to another host computer on wide area network 275, such as acommon carrier shipping service like UPS® or FedEx®. Status information11 is returned and received by status receiver 14, which places the newstatus information in status database 16. When status receiver 14updates the status in status database 16, it sets a flag on theparticular database record indicating a change in status.

Periodically, electronic mail messenger 15 checks status database 16, tosee if the status of any record has changed, by examining the records,status flags. If a record has been flagged, then electronic mailmessenger 15 composes an electronic mail message 12 based on the newstatus information in status database 16. This electronic mail message12 is transmitted to the customer over the wide area network 275.

FIG. 3 illustrates the operation of status requester 13. In an exemplaryembodiment, the status requester is continually running a program thatperiodically requests status updates from other host computers on widearea network 275. After waiting 21 for a designated time, which for ashipping status update is preferably every six to twenty-four hours,status database 16 is checked 22 to see if there are more statusrecords. If so, then a status record is selected 23 and a status requestis composed 24. This status request is sent 25 to another host computeron wide area network 275. This requesting process continues until eachof the status records in status database 16 have been checked 22.

FIG. 4 illustrates the operation of status receiver 14. In the exemplaryembodiment, the status receiver is a continually running program thatperiodically receives status information 11 from another host computeron wide area network 275 based on requests generated by status requester13. Wide area network 275 is continually checked for new statusinformation 11. If new status information is found available at 31 thenthe status information is received 32 and the corresponding statusrecord is fetched 33 from status database 16. The information iscompared with that in the status record to determine 34 if the receivedinformation is new. If the received information is new, then the statusrecord is updated 35 in status database 16 and the Updated Status flagis set 36 in the status record.

FIG. 5 illustrates the operation of electronic mail messenger 15. In anexemplary embodiment, the electronic mail messenger is a continuallyrunning program that periodically checks 41 status database 16 to see ifany records have an “Updated Status” flag set. If so, the appropriatestatus record is fetched 42 from status database 16 and an electronicmail message is composed 43 regarding the new status information. Thiselectronic mail message is then preferably sent 44 to the recipient overwide area network 275.

One skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains willrecognize that the various components of the system may communicatebetween themselves in a variety of ways. In an exemplary embodiment,status receiver 14 signals electronic mail messenger 15 via an “UpdatedStatus” flag in the appropriate database records that a new updatemessage should be sent. However, status receiver 14 could directlycommunicate with electronic mail messenger 15 to send a status updatemessage without setting a signaling flag in status database 16 andawaiting discovery of such a flag by the electronic mail messenger.

One skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains willfurther recognize that components of status requester 13 and statusreceiver 14 may be combined into a single module that communicates witha remote host computer in a synchronous fashion. For example, the statusrequester portion of the combined module could send a status request tothe remote host computer and wait for the status information to bereceived before proceeding to submit the next status request to theremote host computer. This type of synchronous operation is quite commonin electronic data interchange applications.

The present invention may be implemented as a software program on a hostcomputer such as 250 in FIG. 1 within a network 275 such as theInternet. The program may be loaded onto computer 250 from disk 248 or asimilar storage medium.

A general description of the present invention as well as an exemplaryembodiment of the present invention has been set forth above. Thoseskilled in the art to which the present invention pertains willrecognize and be able to practice additional variations to the methodsand system described within the teachings of this invention.Accordingly, all such modifications and additions are deemed to bewithin the scope of the invention, which is to be limited only by theappended claims.

1. A method comprising: receiving, at a server, status of an order;using a processor associated with the server, detecting the status;updating an order record with the status; generating a messagecontaining the status; and transmitting the message over a network. 2.The method of claim 1 further comprising requesting the status.
 3. Themethod of claim 1 further comprising storing the status in a statusdatabase.
 4. The method of claim 1 further comprising: periodicallydetecting that the status has been updated, the message generated inresponse to the status having been updated.
 5. The method of claim 1wherein the status includes shipping status.
 6. A system comprising atleast one computer processor and computer storage configured to execute:a status receiver to receive status of an order; a status requester todetect the status; a status updater to update an order record with thestatus; and a messenger module to generate a message containing thestatus and to transmit the message over a network.
 7. The system ofclaim 6 wherein the status requester is to request the status.
 8. Thesystem of claim 6 further comprising a status database to store thestatus.
 9. The system of claim 6 wherein the messenger module isconfigured to: periodically detect that the status has been updated, andgenerate the message in response to the status having been updated. 10.The system of claim 6 wherein the status includes a shipping status. 11.A machine-readable storage device having executable instructions tocause a machine to perform a method comprising: receiving, at a server,status of an order; detecting the status; updating an order record withthe status: generating a message containing the status; and transmittingthe message over a network.
 12. The machine-readable storage device ofclaim 11, the method further comprising requesting the status.
 13. Themachine readable storage device of claim 11, the method furthercomprising storing the status in a status database.
 14. Themachine-readable storage device of claim 11, the method furthercomprising: periodically detecting that the status has been updated, andgenerating the message in response to the status having been updated.15. The machine-readable storage device of claim 11 wherein the statusincludes shipping status.
 16. A system comprising: a first means forreceiving, at a server status of an order; a second means for detectingthe status; a third means for updating an order record with the status;and a fourth means for generating a message containing the status andfor transmitting the message over a network.